chat

Any system that allows any number of
logged-in users to have a typed, real-time, on-line
conversation via a network.

The medium of chat is descended from talk, but the terms
(and the media) have been distinct since at least the early
1990s. talk is prototypically for a small number of people,
generally with no provision for channels. In chat
systems, however, there are many channels in which any
number of people can talk; and users may send private
(one-to-one) messages.

Chat systems have given rise to a distinctive style combining
the immediacy of talking with all the precision (and
verbosity) that written language entails. It is difficult to
communicate inflection, though conventions have arisen to help
with this.

Much of the chat style is identical to (and probably derived
from) Morse code jargon used by ham-radio amateurs since the
1920s, and there is, not surprisingly, some overlap with TDD
jargon. Most of the jargon was in use in talk systems.
Many of these expressions are also common in Usenetnews
and electronic mail and some have seeped into popular
culture, as with emoticons.

The MUD community uses a mixture of emoticons, a few of
the more natural of the old-style talk mode abbreviations,
and some of the "social" list above. In general, though,
MUDders express a preference for typing things out in full
rather than using abbreviations; this may be due to the
relative youth of the MUD cultures, which tend to include many
touch typists. Abbreviations specific to MUDs include:
FOAD, ppl (people), THX (thanks), UOK? (are you OK?).

Some BIFFisms (notably the variant spelling "d00d") and
aspects of ASCIIbonics appear to be passing into wider use
among some subgroups of MUDders and are already pandemic on
chat systems in general.